FULTON, Miss. (WTVA) -- From start to finish, any potter would tell you the art takes time to truly pay off.
"We've just been working on this about two months," potter Renae Bennett said, motioning toward the stack of angels stacked in the room.
They already have 450 made, but their goal is much higher.
"We're making 10,000 angels, and we're selling them for $100 apiece," Bennett said.
Considering it takes a few weeks to make each one of these angels, there's still a ways to go.
Bennett said the money raised through this effort will go toward something very dear to her heart: a place she feels her son can truly thrive.
"As a parent, we have to know our kids are taken care of, and we don't want them sent to an institution, because they're high-functioning [special needs adults]. They deserve everything everybody else does."
Bennett's son, Marcus Beard, suffered a traumatic brain injury a decade ago.
He even lived in an institution for a number of months.
That's why Bennett and other parents are working with volunteers to create the Crossroads Ranch, a place where these disabled adults can live in relative independence and be safe.
"It's just going to be a place -- our vision and all of our visions -- where they can live and work, and be proud of [it], and be part of the community," volunteer Tammy Tiner said.
The ranch, its houses and other amenities will eventually be constructed on 42 acres of land Bennett plans to donate to the organization.
"We want someone to be there to be a supervisor but not a 24/7 caregiver," Tiner said. "We'll have daily activites, let them be part of the daily workings of the ranch [and] they'll have chores and activities they need to do."
First, though, they have to raise the money to build it.
They do it through the pottery, both the sale of those angels and other pieces sold at a nearby store.
Renae's son said he's excited at the prospect of getting to live on his own.
"I just hope my mother really comes through with this pottery business she's in, and I hope it gets bigger and bigger and helps me further on in life," Beard said.
In fact, that's why many of the parents have gotten themselves involved.
"I think about what it would be like if he wasn't in my life, and I don't think it would be as meaningful as it is now," Tiner said. "I think I should do everything in my power to make his life as good as he has mine."
That's why they've got a steady stream of volunteers visiting the Fulton pottery location, helping out where they can to ensure a bright future for those less fortunate.
Bennett said a nearby concrete foundation could be the answer for the future of the pottery operation.
The slab used to be Itawamba Manufacturing.
Organizers hope one day through a grant or other financial means to purchase and use this to expand the pottery operation which will in turn help fund the Crossroads Ranch.
